We’ve had a revival all week at church. It sure makes for a very busy week! So in addition to the family being at church every night, the girls had a volleyball game on Tuesday. Unfortunately, they lost. They have another game tomorrow. There was no revival tonight, so the youth had their normal Friday night movie complete with hot dogs and popcorn. Revival picks up again tomorrow night. Thankfully, the girls volleyball game is in the afternoon, so it doesn’t conflict with church.

Hannah finally finished her riding skirt this week. It’s a split skirt that buttons in the front. When you want to ride, you unbutton it. It came out great! Here it is from the front.

Here it is from the back. The wind was blowing so it made picture taking hard, but you can tell that it looks like culottes from the back.

Here’s the pattern she used. 1901 Split Skirt Pattern (affiliate link) She used a lightweight cotton fabric for this skirt. It does get hot in Kentucky in the summer! I think later on, she’ll made another one or two out of different fabrics.

In other homeschool happenings, the missing math book was found. Saxon 8/7.  I’m happier about it than she is. lol All the schoolwork actually went pretty smoothly this week. I think it’s because all the kids were healthy. Hopefully, we’re done with all the virus’s for the winter!

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

Super Easy Valentine Paper Rose Cutout
Modified Workbox System for a Large Family
Build a Newspaper – A family newspaper sounds like fun!
Family Newspaper – more info on starting a family newspaper

How to Create a Course of Study and Count High School Credits
How to Homeschool for Free – Full online homeschool curriculum
K-12 Placement Tests
Homeschool Curriculum Share -Give and get free curriculum!

To see more homeschooling posts, visit Weekly Wrap Up.

Abby & Zach finally finished the Dayspring Pilgrim Story online course. Due to sickness and holidays, it took them longer to finish. It’s for grades 3-6, but I had Abby do it, too. Zach is in the middle of the final project of building a wetu. He would have finished yesterday, but we couldn’t find the glue. There are always bottles of glue laying around everywhere, until you actually need one. Then I can’t find one anywhere. sigh…

The girls have had a few volleyball games this week. Unfortunately, they didn’t win any of them. 🙁 They are getting lots of practice though, and they are getting better with each game.

I asked Hannah what she wanted to learn how to cook next, and she said lasagna. So she learned how to make lasagna.

She did a great job. They were delicious. Yes, she made two. One 13×9 is not enough for eight people. At least not the eight people I’m feeding!  At the dinner table, her brother hugged her and said I love you! Then after tasting it, he told her she should more time on home ec and less time on schoolwork. lol

Zach kept himself busy the other day making fighter “things” (I don’t know what their called! lol) out of legos. He made quite a few, and insisted I take a picture. lol

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

10 Lies People Believe About Homeschooling Families
Setting Our Own Pace, a Case for Year Round Homeschooling
Burgess Animal Book for Children Guide
7 Vital Skills to Teach Your Children That Will Trump an Ivy League Education
Hope in Christ, not Curriculum
U.S. Capital Tour with David Barton

To see more homeschooling posts, visit Weekly Wrap Up.

A new year is a great time to start over if your homeschool hasn’t been going the way you want it to. A new plan, a new schedule, new books.

I’m working on a new schedule. It’s harder to schedule now that they are all older and mostly working on their own. The teens like to go to bed late, and sleep late in the morning. Ok, the 12 year old does, too.  I would prefer to go to bed earlier, get up earlier and start school no later than 9 and finish earlier in the day. Can you say conflict? lol While I could force them to follow my schedule, I can’t come up with any reason to, besides “I said so”. So I am letting the 18, 17, and 14 year olds set their own schedule. As long as they get their work done, and written down in their planners by the end of the day, I’m good.  Of course, there are consequences to not getting their work done. I’m working more closely with the 12 year old 6th grader. He has to start school after he’s finished he’s dressed and eaten.

Have you checked out SchoolhouseTeachers.com? I did a review of the website last year. I love the website! We are still using it for film making and voice right now. I’ll be adding more as we go along.

After a couple of weeks off from volleyball, they girls had practice this week. Since we’ve had a cold go through our house, only Abby was able to make practice. They have the first game of the year, an away game, on the 11th. Go Trailblazers!!

If your teens are looking for class rings, check out my Homeschool Class Rings post for more information.

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

Schoolwork in a Jar – Kids pick what to work on next
Tidbits of Advice for Homeschoolers
American Revoluntionary War Unit Study
Learn to Code HTML
G.A. Henty Books in Chronological Order
Printable Forms

To see more homeschooling posts, visit Weekly Wrap Up.

I was finally able to get a picture at volleyball. I was only able to get Hannah, as I don’t like to interrupt practice with flash photography. I’ll have to get Abby another time. Anyway, here’s Hannah working on her overhand serve.

Hannah tried her hand at making sourdough donuts this week. The whole family loved them!

Actually, she got tired of my saying I was going to make them, so she did it. lol They tasted much less sour than our bread. With the glaze that she made, you couldn’t even really tell they were sourdough other than the texture being different. We will definitely make these more often.

I am undecided as to when we are going to start our vacation. Bad homeschooling mom! lol My nieces and nephews get out of school next Tuesday. Since they will be spending a lot of their vacation across the street, it’s just easier (on me!) if we are off school while they are visiting. I do think I’ll make mine have school on Monday and Tuesday at least, and finish out as much of the week as we can. Then we’ll hit it hard in January!

To see more homeschooling posts, visit Weekly Wrap Up.

I have big news to report this week! After several losses, the girls homeschool volleyball team won TWO games this week! Go Trailblazers!!  They had another away game tonight, but I haven’t heard from them yet. Hurry up and call girls and let me know how it went!

Abby and Zach are busy learning their lines for the church Christmas play. They both have big speaking parts. I’m not worried about Abby at all, as she is our drama queen. lol I was concerned about Zach memorizing his many lines. Tonight, while waiting in the church parking lot, I went over the play with him. He knew most of the lines! He had them all until the last couple. Since the play isn’t until the 19th, I think it’s safe to say he will have them all memorized. phew! lol

We’re going to have one more week of school, before taking a break. After we start again after the first of the year, we’re going to get back on track with our six week on, one week off schedule. We really do prefer that schedule.

The Homeschool Crew has been on break so I have no new reviews to share. It has been nice to get a break, but I really look forward to doing more homeschool reviews starting in January.

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

Fun Online Reading and Spelling Games & Resources
Writing Assignments with the Bible as Your Text
Use Educational Place Mats and Magnets
13 Ways to Encourage Vocabulary Developtment
Learning American History Through Movies Timeline
12 Reasons to Homeschool Your Children

To see more homeschooling posts, visit Weekly Wrap Up.

The girls played in their first volleyball game of the season last Friday. Unfortunately, they lost both games they played.  🙁  Some of the scores were pretty close, like 25-23. A “game” is actually the best two out of three games. All the girls are practicing hard, though, so hopefully they will have a win soon! I really must get them to pose for a picture in the new uniforms they got this year. The league they play in requires modest clothing, and the girls have to wear culottes to their knees. I love it! I wish all sports required modest clothing for girls and boys.

They also had volleyball practice two nights this week. Add that to Abby’s youth praise team practice, singing at an event, church Sunday and Wednesday, Calen working at church on the electronics, movie night at church, and a visit for an MRI for one of the kids and it’s been a busy week! I think I’m leaving some stuff out, too!

Oh, on Election Day, my son who just turned 18 the last week of October, voted for the first time! Very exciting! He was nervous, and kept trying to back out. I told him he had to vote, not because I knew who he was going to vote for, because he would look back the next day, week, month, year, and say I wish I had voted. So he voted and he survived. lol I wanted to take a picture, but was not able to. I pulled my cellphone out to take a picture of him behind the voting booth and asked the attendant if it was ok. He told me no, I couldn’t take a picture. Another on there said I could as long as I didn’t get one of the voting screen (from across the room? On the other side of the machine?). So I ended up not taking a picture. What if the first guy was right, and I got arrested? I didn’t feel like risking jail. lol

I haven’t mentioned Sabbath Week very much lately. We’re still doing 6 weeks on and one week off. Except for this last Sabbath Week. Some of the kids hadn’t been working diligently enough, so I cancelled Sabbath Week. You can imagine how that went over! lol I’m hoping they learned their lesson and we don’t have to do that again. Because I like my Sabbath Week, too!!

My husband started something new in our family Bible reading time recently. We go around the room taking turns reading the verses from that nights selection. Since some of us use different versions of the Bible, it can get quite interesting. lol It is a good way to compare the different translations, though.

Have you seen this video about how to start a fire with an orange?

Looks pretty cool! Now the question is, am I brave enough to let my kids try this?!

Here are a few reviews I posted in the last week for The Schoolhouse Review Crew:
Grace & Truth Books – They have a great collection of books for boys!
Journeys of Faithfulness – A devotion for young women
Beloved Books Sugar Creek Gang Audio CDs – Who doesn’t love the Sugar Creek Gang?!

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

Free Kindle Books for your Kids
Fall Freebies
Teacher Freebies
My Secret is Out, I Don’t Grade

Free McGuffey Readers
Free Art Unit Study Notebooking Pages
How Can I Afford Single Mom Homeschooling?
Presidents Lapbook

To see more homeschooling posts, visit Weekly Wrap Up.